Campaign Finance Bibliography

How is money in politics mobilized? Much of the literature on political behavior focuses on individual attributes as predictors of behavior. Here we examine the social antecedents for contributing to campaigns, with a particular focus on the role of population density in facilitating contributions to campaigns, differentiating among contributions to candidates for the House, Senate, and Presidency. Our results suggest that, controlling for the average income of a given area, population density accounts for a very large amount of the variation in contribution levels. This analysis addresses a perennial puzzle in US politics: how Democrats remain competitive in the money race in US politics, despite that wealth and income tend to be associated with being Republican. The answer is simple: more densely populated areas tend to be Democratic, and thus the Democratic party starts with a substantial advantage in mobilizing monetary support.